


Playground Antics

by Magical_Persona



Series: Elementary Sides [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Children, Alternate Universe - Human, Sides as children, Small children sides
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27044662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magical_Persona/pseuds/Magical_Persona
Summary: Roman, Remus, Virgil, Logan, and Patton enjoy playing together at recess. What happens when Remus brings the new kid Janus over to come play with them one day. Will they make Janus play the evil bad guy because of his scars?
Series: Elementary Sides [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974352
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

"I'll get you, you evil wizard!" Roman shouted, brandishing a short stick in one hand as his other clung to the ladder he was trying to climb.

Logan, who was standing at the top of the slide on the old playground set no one really used, laughed. "You truly believe  _ you _ can get into my tower? It won't work. I have ways of keeping you out! I'm a wizard. You would need some very strong magic-" 

He was cut off by Patton's small head of red-brown curls poking around Roman's shoulder. "I think I can lower the...the…"

"Barrier." Logan quietly and gently supplied.

"Barrier!" Patton exclaimed. "I can lower it!" 

The bright smile on Roman's face could have melted the frost covered mulch around them. "That's right!" He looked up at Logan, the grin falling into a determined smirk. "You're going to be sorry for what you did!"

Logan leaned down to look at Roman through the bars. "I'm never sorry, Sir Roman. You're the one who's going to regret coming here."

Just then Patton stepped up to the cold metal playground, took a deep breath and placed a gloved hand on one of the legs. His eyes closed for a moment, a look of concentration crossing his face. His bright green eyes snapped open as he looked at Roman with a smile. 

"I did it!" He exclaimed jumping quickly away from the pole and back to the safety behind his friend. "You can get in now."

"Ha!" Roman took the last two ladder rungs as quickly as he could, snow boots clattering unhelpfully on the cold metal. "I'm going to win now!"

Logan backed up, giving Roman the space to stand. "Virgil!" He turned to the child who'd been huddled in the gap leading to the monkey bars.

Those deep brown eyes were now focused on him with the same intensity Logan had when he found a new word.

"Keep Patton busy," Logan commanded, his voice taking on a slightly sterner tone.

Virgil nodded once before leaping onto the monkey bars and dropping to the ground. When he landed, one hand on the white tinted mulch he focused on Patton. "Tag."

That was all it took for the two boys to take off, darting in and out of the supports of the playset.

"You're friends cannot help you," Logan pointed out smuggly. "Remus has been banished and Virgil won't let Patton out of his sight. No one will save you." 

Roman took a cautious step toward Logan, his heavy boots making it difficult to move properly on the metal. Logan was quick to take note of it. If someone got really hurt they might not be allowed to play here any more.

Then he caught sight of something else. Remus' lime green coat streaking from the time-out wall to where Virgil was staring Patton down around the slide.

"Virgil!" Logan snapped, pushing himself down the slide. "Retreat. They summoned Remus back from the beyond. We are outnumbered!" 

Logan took Virgil's black and purple sleeve and pulled him away from the playset. The two took off, Virgil easily out pacing Logan as Roman tossed his stick aside and followed down the slide.

Logan could feel the cold air burning in his lungs when a strong hand touched his shoulder just a bit too roughly. Logan tumbled to the ground, glasses falling somewhere nearby as his vision was filled with a blurry blob of green. 

"Ree!" Roman shouted as he caught up. "You caught him! We finally did it! Good will...um…"

"Triumph," Logan offered.

"Tri...triumff," Roman repeated slowly as he sounded out the new word. "Over evil!"

Patton helped Logan to his feet, pressing his glasses into the other boy's palm. When Logan's deep blue eyes could finally focus again he could see Patton's smiling face. 

"Are you hurt?" Virgil asked, slowly walking back to the group.

"No," Logan replied as he brushed the mulch off his space themed jacket. "Are you?"

Virgil shook his head as Remus smiled at them. 

"Did the teacher let you off or did you just leave again?" Patton asked.

Remus laughed, his wide smiling showing off the gap where a front tooth was missing. "He said I could go." At Patton's unconvinced look he raised his hands. "Promise!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Do you think he has friends?" Remus asked, gesturing to the new kid who was sitting on the bench by himself.

"He sits there every time we go outside and no one talks to him," Logan pointed out. "Probably not."

"We should be his friends!" Patton declared, pushing himself up from the cold step he'd been sitting on.

"He looks funny," Virgil said quickly as he grabbed Patton's sleeve.

While it was true the burns along the side of his face made the new kid look odd that was no reason not to be his friend.

Patton pouted, crossing his arms over his chest. "That's not nice, Virgil. That's like saying you won't play with me or Logan because we have glasses."

Virgil thought about telling him those glasses had been the exact reason he didn't want to talk to Logan when they first met. They made his eyes far bigger than they should. He looked like an alien from one of those posters at the book fair that tried to convince you 'reading is out of this world'. With the big eyes that were supposed to be cute, but were just wrong. Virgil also knew he probably shouldn't say that so he stuck his hands in his pockets and sighed.

"I think if he wanted friends he could come over here and ask us!" Roman said firmly.

"We asked Virgil to be our friend," Patton pointed out.

"That was different!" Roman insisted.

"How?" Logan asked, much to Roman's annoyance.

"I'm going to ask him!" Remus' voice was firm as he stood, marching away.

There was no stopping Remus when he was on a mission. They all knew that. The best they could do was watch as the child with a head of mess brown hair walked toward the new kid and hope things didn't go wrong.

Remus stood in front of the shorter child, standing directly in the sun. The cold shadow cast over him made Janus shiver. He glared up at the boy.

"Do you wanna play with us?" Remus asked, unperturbed by the venom in those eyes.

"No."

"Liar."

For a split second the surprise showed on Janus' face. No one had called him out on a lie like that. Most kids left the minute he glared at them. The few that didn't were quick to leave when told to.

But Remus was still standing there, looking down at him with his hands on his hips. "You look at us every time Roman shouts or when Virgil fell off the monkey bars and started crying. You wanted to help. I saw you."

Maybe all that was true. Maybe Janus wanted to have friends. Maybe he wanted to play with everyone else. But they didn't want to be friends with him. They'd just make fun of him. They'd make him the bad guy. They'd make fun of his face, tell him he was ugly.

"You were laughing at me," Janus' voice was quiet as he looked down at the yellow gloves keeping his hands warm.

"We were not!" Remus' voice rose to a shrill pitch at the accusation. "We were saying that we wanted to play with you!"

Remus held his hand out to the boy. "Please. If you don't like us you don't have to play with us tomorrow."

Janus wanted to say no. To yell and say he knew they were just going to be mean to him, but there was something so honest about that gap tooth smile. He found himself reaching for Remus' hand and allowing himself to be pulled across the playground.

"He has a girl name!" Roman protested.

"It's actually the name of a really old god," Logan corrected.

"You're so smart, Logan!" Patton exclaimed with a clap and a hop. He wanted to hug his friend, but Logan didn't like hugs so this was the next best thing.

Logan preened at the praise, puffing his chest and raising his chin. Patton found himself smiling. He liked making Logan happy.

"Janus," Logan greeted when Remus and the new kid were close enough.

Virgil shook his head, how Logan could remember names was beyond him. Even only having one new kid in their grade this year Virgil couldn't have pulled his name that quickly.

"We were about to play Heroes and Bad guys," Roman explained, jumping up from his step.

"Villains," Logan corrected, though Roman ignored him.

Janus sighed, shoulders slumping. Of course this was why they wanted him to play with them. He'd been right all along.

"You want me to be the villain," it wasn't a question, but Patton and Logan seemed upset by it all the same.

"Do you want to be?" Patton asked.

Janus' eyes were as wide as Virgil's as he stared at Patton. No one had ever asked him what he wanted. Not since...well...since the fire. Since he'd gotten out of the hospital. Not once had someone asked him if he  _ wanted _ to be the bad guy. They'd always just told him to be.

The five of them waited patiently for Janus' answer. The boy looked so lost, his one good eye searching their faces for any hint of maliciousness. When he found none he shook his head nervously.

"Then you don't have to be!" Patton said as though it were that simple.

Janus looked up at the five kids surrounding him. "Really?"

"Really." Echoed Logan's confident and affirming voice. 


	3. Chapter 3

"This isn't fair!" Virgil complained as he looked down the rickety bridge connecting one side of their playset to the other. "Four," he held up a hand of five fingers, one of which Logan pushed back down. "Against two isn't fair! It should be three and three."

He glanced to Logan for confirmation and when he saw the other child nod Virgil gave a sharp, pointed nod as well. "Three on three is  _ way _ more fair."

"Well, I'm a prince," Roman said as he placed a hand on his chest. "I  _ have _ to be a good guy. That's the rules."

"Then we'll take Patton," Virgil huffed pointing to the smallest of their group. He could see Logan nodding along out of the corner of his eye.

"Patton would be good to have," Logan agreed. "It would be nice to have a healer on our side for once."

"No!" Roman forced the small child behind him. "You can't have Patton! He's as sweet as they come. It doesn't make sense for him to be a pirate!"

Logan sighed and shrugged it would have been nice, but Roman had a point. Patton was a far cry from pirate like.

"Then we'll take Remus," the offended noise that left Roman as he pulled his twin closer made it pretty clear what Roman thought of that suggestion.

"Roman, four against two isn't fair, that's a fact," Logan pointed out. "If you give us Patton we could both have healers. Janus is an adept healer as well. You're more than covered with him."

Roman was about to open his mouth to argue when Janus stepped forward, his quiet voice still easily heard above the playground noise. "Or, I could be on your side?"

"Oh nice going Thunder Storm," Roman growled. "You're making Janus be a bad guy."

"No one's making me," Janus grumbled.

Virgil sent one of his fleeting gentle looks at Janus. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

Janus smiled, the action hurt where it tugged at his scars, but it was worth it to see Virgil and Logan to smile back. "You need a healer and you guys are  _ way _ more fun than Roman."

Roman's scoff was worth it and the laughter that erupted from the group even more so. Virgil took Janus' hand and pulled him onto the platform he and Logan had claimed.

"Are you sure?" Logan asked, pulling the strings tighter on Janus' hood knowing how difficult it was for their new friend to tie them.

Janus nodded. "You said pirates were treated better than the...the king's pirates."

"Privateers," Logan supplied with a soft smile. "And they were."

Then he glared at the ship across from them. "Alright men! I see a ship from the king. Board her!"

**Author's Note:**

> I have had this idea stuck in my head for a few days now. There are a few more pieces of this story to be told but I haven't decided if I'm going to make a series or just keep adding to this work.


End file.
